We pride ourselves in treating unhealthy mouths with a customized approach using the most up to date information. We also work with dentists that specialize in the treatment of gum disease, and improving the appearance of the gum tissue.
New studies link gum disease to significant health concerns like stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and even low birth weight babies. Gum disease is an infection of the tissues that support the teeth. Bacteria can travel through the blood stream because of this chronic infection. A byproduct of immune system’s reaction to bacterial invasion is inflammation, and chronic inflammation is a major cause of cardiac disease. There are now studies that show reducing inflammation over a lifetime will have benefits in a higher quality of life in later years. Patients with uncontrolled gum disease are also twice as likely to develop diabetes, and there is a higher mortality rate in diabetic patients who also have periodontal disease. Even insurance companies are realizing that cooperation between medicine and dentistry can result in a decrease in medical claims by 5%.
Our dental practice is striving to help our patients reach a better quality of life through healthy teeth and gums as well as looking for oral conditions that maybe a sign of an underlying medical condition. For many of our dental patients we see them more often that their physicians do. We routinely do oral cancer exams, take blood pressure on adult patients, and look for chronic gum infections, even testing a few drops of blood for signs of C – reactive protein a blood marker that indicates systemic inflammation. We can also test for the A1C levels that indicate average glucose levels over the past 3 months.
The fact that so many American’s are overweight has helped caused an epidemic of snoring and sleep apnea. An estimated 27% of couples over the age of fourth even sleep in separate bedrooms. Sleep apnea occurs when the tongue blocks the airway repeatedly through the night. Decreased blood oxygen levels affect the patient’s health by increasing blood pressure causing heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes. Sleep apnea is a medical disorder that should be evaluated by a sleep specialist after an overnight sleep study. The Epworth sleepiness scale questionnaire used by dentists and physicians is used to determine urgency for a sleep study.
